Introduction to “Tricks of the Tree” genealogy blog!

Welcome to the first edition of the "Tricks of the Tree" genealogy research blog!

The goal of this blog is to share my experience — and future experiences — in family history research. I hope to bring you tips and techniques, new resources, and case studies from my own research, and occasionally other topics.

I have been conducting research on my own family since I was 9 years old, and have been conducting research for others for the last several years. I have written several articles for Family Chronicle magazine, and am the creator of the Family History Research Toolkit CD-ROM, published by Genealogical Publishing Co.

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9 years old….. Gee Michael you really are a pro at this… I started in my forties, actually sooner, becuase I really was curious about who my famiy was…

Growing up in a foster home, knowing you were definately not part of family makes you very inquisitive… At first I thought I was found in an orphange. Then one day out out the blue, it popped right out of my young mouth, "I was illegmiate" My foster mother nearly had kittens… How dare I even think like that.. But I was not embrassed, in fact for some unknown reason ; my cousin\’s mother calls it the "Fay" a scottish term for knowing things you really shouldn\’t but just do? I knew it was my mother\’s fault, Then once again it popped out of my big mouth "My mother was raped!" That just about did my foster mother in… How could I think such things… Having such a wild imagination and such curisosity must have drove my "MOther" insane…. I would spend hours writing little stories, on things I knew nothing about… One day I had the nerve to ask our social worker about my mother, I figure as a teenager I had the right to know… She asked me why I needed to know so badly…. and once again I explained my feelings…She was dumbfounded..I was right on the money. Although she could only tell be part of the story, it was enough to make me wonder for many a years. Once I had a child, my interest was once again stoked, this time I really did dig and came up up empyt. Till Mother\’s day on my 40th birthday, coming home from church. My driver, wanted to know why I was going to change my maiden name. Of course we know the story, it how this ened, that is interesting… It turned out he played hockey with my uncles…. He lived right behind them and he knew my mother, right to the very fact that I had not shared with anyone, she could not speak…Wow!!! I cried, I laughed, the world was mine… On that night I found my great aunt and my mother… Eight months later my mother passed away. But in those 8 months she found her dolly, me, and she had a new dolly my son. Oh how she loved my son, always the same question,? Where Adam? Why? Always a death grip on his hand. She lived her life as a three year old and died as a three year old….

In the years that have past I have found real flesh and blood cousins, both here in Canada and in the United States… I am having the time of my life finding out about family about me.

So Michael, you opened another door for me to peek inside and explore.

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